Shot in Iraqi Kurdistan, the feature-lenght documentary film portrays women guerillas in a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Free Women's Unit, in combat against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Directed by Kurdish Montreal filmmaker Zaynê Akyol, the film was conceived and named for a woman, Gulîstan, who'd been a role model for the director in her adopted home in Montreal, until she left to fight with the PKK. Akyol went to Iraq in 2010 in an unsuccessful effort to find her and make a film about her. Unable to locate Gulîstan, she did find women who knew her and the focus of the documentary shifted to telling Gulîstan's story through their memories of her. But when she returned to Iraq to film in 2014, some of those women were now dead while others were in combat. The focus of the film shifted yet again, to documenting the experiences of women like Gulîstan.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews